Along with an abundance of bookstores, the area is blessed with some of our country's finest writers. In 1998 Brattleboro author Karen Hesse won the international Newbury Award for her work "Out of the Dust". Archer Mayor's popular mystery series features Joe Gunther in Brattleboro and other area settings. Wyn Cooper's poem found its way into our hearts as the lyric for Sheryl Crow's "All I want to do." Rudyard Kipling lived here at the end of the 19th century and wrote "The Jungle Book" and "Captains Courageous" while here. Like Kipling before them, poets and writers of all kinds continue to live and work in southeastern Vermont - and we're glad they do!

In the autumn writers and fans from around the world converge on Brattleboro for the Brattleboro Literary Festival.